Thunderstorm
by yarntastic
Summary: Everybody is afraid of something. Even the brave and (not so) fearless Atlanta. / A little bit of AxA fluff at the end because I just can't help it.


Everybody has their fears. Archie has that stupid fear of water – I mean, it's not like we need it to _survive_ or anything; Odie fears enclosed spaces, which I always found odd seeing as he holes himself up in his room playing video games; Jay fears defeat, which I found out the hard way the day I won a game of Go-Fish against him; Neil has a bit of an irrational fear of store-brand grooming products (though I still think it's more justifiable than what Archie fears); Theresa has the female-common fear of creepy crawlies; and even big, strong Herry can't sleep without his teddy bear in fear of what the darkness holds.

Personally, I like to think I'm exempt from all that 'fear' stuff. I've boldly taken on everything these mythological beings have thrown at me, without so much as a blink of an eye. Even in day to day life, Archie and I challenge each other to some pretty crazy stunts that I willingly attempt – and excel at, may I add. Nothing scares me.

But it's kind of hard to convince myself of my fearlessness with my head buried under a pillow as another crack of thunder shakes the building. I'm _not_ afraid of thunderstorms. Nope. Not at all. Well, not during the day at least. When it's day time, there's people around and I'm aware of my surroundings – I can totally keep my cool on the outside. But at night? At night there's none of that. I'm alone in the darkness; there's no one for me to prove myself to and the fear takes over as I cower under my blankets.

Inside my shelter, I flipped open my PMR only to be blinded by the screen. Odie had recently given us all upgrades to allow us some internet access – he mentioned something with a bunch of letters and some type of coding, and something else about coffee, java was it?, that we couldn't access those sites that had a certain combination of something - but whatever. With my eyes adjusting to the bright tiny screen, I managed to find a weather forecast for the night and groaned as I tapped to expand the page for a detailed forecast. There was a huge line of storms coming through, and it looked like none of this was going to leave up until morning at the earliest.

Cautiously, I peeked out from under my pillow. The brownstone was silent except for the wind whipping outside and the rain beating down against my side of the building – of course it had to be against the side of the building my room was on and not the other side where Archie's or Jay's rooms would take the beating.

My thoughts wandered to Archie as another flash of lightning sent me back under the pillow. He was probably fast asleep over there, on the other side of my wall, with earplugs in his ears to deafen the sound of the rain. Part of me wanted to run over there every time a crack of thunder came booming through the walls and curl up under the safety of his blankets and arms. Yet, at the same time, I had to refrain myself as each flash of light lit up the room. Things were still complicated between us – things were starting to smooth out in the right direction, sure, but there was still a lot to work on and I didn't want to scare him and chase him away when things were still up in the air like they were.

The flashes of light and loud booms continued their relentless assault to the point that I could feel myself whimper with each passing clap of thunder. I hated being weak and helpless like this, cowering under the shelter of measly blankets and pillows. Zeus was a god and a god with lightning bolts at that, couldn't he do something about this? Counteract the storm, or something? Wasn't there someone somewhere who owed Zeus or Hera a favor and could stop this – or at the very least make it bypass the brownstone?

I was too focused on blocking out the world outside my little shelter that I didn't hear the creak from my door obviously opening. My hunter's hearing didn't even pick up the light shuffling of socked feet on wooden floors as someone entered the room and walked to the side of my bed. It wasn't until my little shelter was attacked that I noticed anything – my pillow was lifted off my head and put to the side while the wall of my blanket fortress was lifted up – and then it was too late. My intruder had laid down next to me. Normally, I would have managed an attack against whoever it was, but I was paralyzed from the fear of the storm combined with this sudden attack.

But there wasn't an attack. There were no punches, no throwing, no grabbing. My intruder simply lay beside me, between me and the window to the storm outside. I could feel arms gently wrap around me and my nose picked up a wonderful smell that was comforting and familiar – the combination of zesty body wash and a musky-manly scent that belonged only to a certain purple-haired warrior I knew.

Another flash of light came, catching me off guard as I was taking in my companion's scent. I tried to jump, startled, but the iron cage of his arms around me kept me down.

"It's okay," the familiar voice whispered as I felt his lips press against my forehead.

"I'm not afraid," I whispered back, defensively.

"Of course you aren't. You aren't afraid of anything," even in the darkness I could still see a smirk spread across his face, "except the idea that there's a guy out there who likes you."

"Guys don't like me. Only dorks and goofballs like you." I wiggled myself closer to him just in time for three flashes of light and three deafening booms to come one right after the other without a break. His arms stiffly held me against him even after the noise subsided. _Not that I mind_, I added to myself as I nuzzled my head below his chin and into his neck.

I could feel him silently chuckle at my response, and I waited for him to mention a certain demigod who still had a bit of an obsession with me to this day. However, he remained silent on the matter, much to my surprise.

The storm continued to rage outside, but I found myself becoming less and less startled. Soon, I could feel the hold of sleep beginning to finally come over me. "Promise you won't say anything," I mumbled into his shirt, fighting the sleep that was taking over, "about me being afraid?"

" 'Lanta, it's raining. Rain is water. I couldn't find my earplugs. You dragged me in here to shut me up so you could sleep. Besides," he rolled back just enough so I could see his face as he winked at me, "I thought you weren't afraid of anything?"

I smiled as he rolled back toward me, my head finding its previous resting place. Leave it to Archie to come up with a plausible story out of nowhere.

"Thanks, Arch."

I could feel his face bury into the top of my head. "Go to sleep. Or no one's going to believe our story."

I didn't need any enticing on the matter and immediately fell into a deep slumber, wrapped in his warm strong arms, guarded from the howling wind and the storm outside.

* * *

**_A/N: Writing from Atlanta's POV was a lot harder than I expected. Mainly because I absolutely adore Archie's obsessive crush on her (I'm such a hopeless__ romantic..._** _le sigh**)**_**_and had to ignore that to write this ._._**

**_And, if anyone remembers the other story I had on here ('Drunk Logic', my technical "first" story), it'll be back someday. I didn't realize until days after I published it on here that MS-Office/I apparently didn't save my last round of edits on it. Nothing major, literally just little tweaks in wording. But rather than leave something up that I wasn't completely happy with I decided to take it down until I find the motivation to figure out what I need to re-tweak. I'm my toughest critic. So sue me ;)_**


End file.
